PRE-TREATMENT , SURFACE PREPARATION , DEGREASING & CLEANING
Firbimatic Spa meets world class application in Europe
One of the world ’ s leading manufacturers of industrial cleaning and degreasing technologies is pleased to announce the completion of a major installation at CERN ’ s Large Hadron Collider ( LHC ) located on the France-Switzerland border .
Completed in 2008 the LHC is the world ' s largest and highest energy particle collider and the most significant installation of its type in the world .
Ultra-high-level component surface energy requirements at CERN were established in order that precision electroplating processes could be carried out with the confidence that substrates were pristinely clean in order to guarantee the integrity of the coatings of various tube and pipe component parts .
Electroplating ( otherwise known as electrodeposition ) is widely used in a variety of industrial applications to modify the surface properties of an object or component part in order to achieve improved abrasion and wear resistance , corrosion protection and lubricity . Its benefits have been established over many years in the higher integrity applications such as automotive , aerospace and military .
The reputation of Firbimatic Spa was pivotal in its selection as the partner of choice for this most prestigious of applications . The 90 % in-house manufacturing capability offered complete confidence in both process and quality control as well as the confidence to meet strict deadlines .
Specifically , the requirement of CERN was to install a solvent cleaning system with a working envelope of 8,000mm x 800mm x 800mm and a working capacity of two Tonnes .
A Support and Development Engineer at the CERN facility commented “ The main objective to achieve with this machine was to improve CERN ability to manage a wide variety of cleaning needs .”
Additionally , he confirmed the need for a new installation was “ To avoid water-based degreasing on carbon steel or low alloyed steels in order to avoid oxidation of components and to degrease parts contaminated with silicon-based lubricants or grease ”.
Solvent based cleaning is clearly the process of choice for such high integrity demands .
Whilst based upon the long established and trusted technology of Firbimatic , the CERN installation was also required to accommodate the infinite flexibility needs
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44 OCTOBER 2020 read online : www . surfaceworld . com